The Labour Party (LP) has expressed its disapproval of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal’s decision, which dismissed the petitions filed by its candidate, Peter Obi, challenging the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the February 25 presidential elections.
The PEPT had on Wednesday, quashed all charges filed by the LP and other political parties, challenging Tinubu’s victory. But the LP said in a statement on Wednesday that it rejects the rulings as they did not serve justice or reflect the law and the desires of the people.
“The Labour Party watched with dismay and trepidation the dismissal of petitions by the five-man panel of the Presidential Election Petition Court led by Justice Haruna Tsammani today and we reject the outcome of the judgment in its entirety because justice was not served and it did not reflect the law and the desire of the people,” Obiora Ifoh, national publicity secretary of the LP, said in the statement.
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“Nigerians were witnesses to the electoral robbery that took place on February 25, 2023, which was globally condemned but the Tribunal in its wisdom refused to accept the obvious.
“What is at stake is democracy and we will not relent until the people’s will prevail.
“We salute the doggedness of our team of lawyers who fearlessly exposed the wrath in our system. We can only weep for democracy in Nigeria but we refuse to give up on Nigeria.
“Details of the party’s position will be presented after consultation with our lawyers after the Certified True Copy of the judgment is made available to us.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Tinubu the winner of the presidential election and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Obi the second and third runners-up respectively.
However, both the LP and the PDP filed petitions in March challenging the outcome of the presidential poll.
In their final written address dated July 20, the petitioners reiterated their claim that both Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima were not eligible to participate in the election.
The petitioners had contended that Tinubu’s ineligibility stemmed from the forfeiture of $460,000 in the US and his inability to secure 25 percent of the votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The petitioners also challenged the outcome of the election on the grounds of fraud and electoral malpractices, which they said the INEC had connived with the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) to perpetrate to rig the election.
The PDP also rejected the judgment, vowing to approach the Supreme Court. The party’s team of lawyers led by Chief Chris Uche said their client only got a judgment from the court and not justice.
“Judgment has just been delivered but we have not received justice. Luckily, the Constitution has given us the right to go on appeal.
“This is the court of first instance. We still have the right to go on appeal to the Supreme Court and you see, this is a struggle that is not just for our client, but for the Constitution of this country, for the rule of law and democracy.
“We were expecting an outcome that will improve, encourage the use of technology to enhance election management, to enhance transparency, to enhance accountability, so that Nigerians will believe in democracy.
“So that Nigerians can come out in their masses like they did, to vote. We don’t want Nigerians to be discouraged.
“There are certain things and principle of law that he knows that we need to explore and we strongly believe that when we get to the Supreme Court, it will have the opportunity to review a number of things that have been said here today.
“We have the instruction of our client to go to the Supreme Court. So, we have asked for the records. We have asked for the judgment. We are going to apply for the transmission of the records because we have a very limited time to push this.
“So, the struggle continues and as it is said, it is not over until it is over,” the lawyer said.
Many Nigerians agree with the LP and the PDP that the ruling of PEPT is a miscarriage of justice.
However, expressing their lack of trust in the Nigerian judicial system, many have preempted the parties’ decision to appeal the judgments, saying it would likely yield the same result.